Reunion: Introduction by Ali Smith

By Fred Uhlman

Book Overview

A deceptively simple, emotionally powerful novella about a passionate friendship between two teenage boys that begins in Germany in 1932--under the shadow of Hitler's rise--and reverberates across the decades. A Contemporary Classics hardcover edition.

The romantic forested landscape of southwestern Germany in 1932 is the setting for the birth of a friendship that will haunt sixteen-year-old Hans Schwarz for the rest of his life. Hans is Jewish, the son of a middle-class doctor who is confident that the rise of the Nazis is only "a temporary illness" afflicting his beloved country.

Hans's newest classmate, Count Konradin von Hohenfels, is a dazzling young aristocrat whose glamorous mother keeps a portrait of Hitler on her dresser. Hans is immediately drawn to Konradin, and thrilled when a close bond forms between the two boys, forged by common interests that set them apart from their classmates. But their loyalties are soon tested in ways they could not have imagined.

Three decades later, from the vantage point of New York City, Hans once again confronts this life-shaping episode from his childhood, through a stunning revelation that he stumbles upon by chance. In its story of simple friendship undone by not-so-simple times, Reunion combines the explosive compression of a fable with the emotional depth of an epic novel many times its length.

Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket. Contemporary Classics include an introduction, a select bibliography, and a chronology of the author's life and times.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0593535626
• ISBN13: 9780593535622
• Release Date: November 2022
• Publisher: Everyman's Library
• Length: 120 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

powerful parable

A simple tale that leads you along the edges of evil, the ugly gratuitous possibilities that lurk within the human personality, and also reminds you breathtakingly that each person is an opaque mystery. A very important read for an evil-infatuated age.

An excellent book

A short, excellent novella about the relationship of two boys on the eve of Hitler's rise to power in Germany. On of the boys, Hans Schwarz--the narrator--is the son of a doctor (and former officer in the Imperial Army), a descendent of rabbis and shopkeepers, whose German roots go back hundreds of years, and whose Jewishness is little more than a matter of heritage, not faith. He feels himself to be as German as anyone can be, but even moreso, like many Germans, a citizen of a region (in this case Swabia), of which he is fiercely proud. At school--and exclusive school for the elite--he befriends Konradin von Hohenloh, a member of one of the most noble of aristocratic families. Despite their difference, a friendship ensues--but is brief and idyllic. Soon the outside world, of which they had remained largely ignorant, begins to creep into their lives, and their friendship is unalterably effected. Reunion is an excellent short study of this tragic time, and I highly recommend it to everyone.

6 stars are needed for this book

I read some of the other reviewers' comments before buying this book. I thought: 'come on...! it cannot be that good'. I was wrong, Reunion's even better than that. The book was a delight to read, but the ending devastated me like no other book in 30 years of reading has even come close to. I cannot think of anything (Tolstoi's Hadji Murad, Kafka's Concerns of a family man, Shakespeare's Lear) that has the same emotional impact of this little book. I know, I know... It's too much. Well, read the book and see.

ONE BOOK A DAY, DURING 60 YEARS...

and Reunion is the most perfect, delicate small great jewel I have ever found ( Only 120 pages and Prologued by another genius )It delves deeply into the moral aspects of the human soul, while weaving a unique friendship among 2 worlds represented by 2 teenagers in the pre Second War World, in Dusserldolf: A jew and a German...If you aprecciate deeply the delicacy and talent of a friend...make him/her this amazing gift of love

The shock of this story has stayed with me for 21 years.

This small but powerful novella is a striking and stunning story. It is the story of a young Jewish boy in Germany whose new classroom member is from an aristocatic family. This new boy is immediately popular due to his good looks, intelligence, athletic abilities, and family standing. The young Jewish boy realizes that given his own stature and desire to befriend the new boy will be a difficult task. He successfully makes great efforts to distinguish himself as a scholar. This results in a close friendship between the two boys. Given the new boys family status the Jewish boy is limited as to how much of this world of his new friend he can be a part of. The young Jewish boy is painfully aware of these limitations. The resulting Nazi domination and war bestows powerful changes in this friendship leaving feelings of betrayal and loss. The young Jewish boy painfully lives with these feelings. The ending was the most powerful I had ever experienced in a book. It was totally unsuspected and shocking. The book caused much thought provoking that has permenantly stayed with me.